Divided ring for loose-leaf books.



No. 839,403. I PATENTBD DEC. 25, "1906. L. M'. MORDEN.

DIVIDBD RING FOR LOOSE LEAP BOOKS.

' APPLICATION FILED MAY 5, 1904.

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No. 839,403. PATENTBD DBO. 25, 1906.-

' L. M. MORDEN.

DIVIDBD RING FOR LOOSE LEAF BOOKS.

APPLICATION ,FILED MAY 5, 1904.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2- W W I." f'ni' dl v LUCENA M. MORDEN, OF VATERBURY, CONNECTICUT.

DIVIDED RING FOR LOOSE-LEAF BOOKS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 25, 1906.

Application filed May 5,1904. Serial No. 206,487.

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, LUCENA M. MORDEN, a citizen of the United States, whose residence and post-office address is 59 Grand street, lVaterbury, county of New Haven, State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Divided Rings for Loose-Leaf Books, fully described and represented in the following specification and the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the same.

This invention relates to an improved con struction for the divided or sectional rings which are used in securing perforated leaves together to form a book to which leaves can be added and removed at pleasure; and the invention comprises a construction in which two rings are divided into halves and onehalf of each ring is connected with one-half of the other ring by an integral wire flatted upon one side, and a spring operates upon the flats to hold the rings normally closed.

The spring operates to hold the rings closed at one side of a foot-plate upon which the wires are journaled, and the construction permits either half of the rings to be moved away from the other half at pleasure. The foot-plate upon which the divided rings are mounted may be provided with me ans'for attaching it to the back of a book, and the construction affords great convenience in the use of such book, as it permits either side of therings to be opened at pleasure to remove and apply the perforated leaves.

To change the leaves, it is common to divide the series of leaves for access to any leaf between the ends of the series by moving one part of the series to one of the ring-sections and retaining the other part upon the opposite ring-seetion, and if one part of the series of leaves is larger than the other, so as to nearly fill one of the ring-sections, it is obvious that such section cannot readily be moved to apply or remove a leaf, but that the other ring-section can be readily moved with the few leaves that are thereon. Great convenience is therefore afforded for removing and applying leaves if either of the ringsections which happens to contain the smaller number of leaves can be moved at pleasure, and the construction affords this facility by connecting the halves of the two ring-see tions separately and making each of such connected halves movable independent of the other halves. WVith this construction no stationary posts or arches are employed, but

full rings are used, which are divided at the top and held normally closed by the operation of the spring. The pivot-wire may be flattened upon one or more sides, and the spring is arranged to contact with the corner of the flattened portion when the rings are closed to press the sections toward one another.

Two constructions are shown in the anneXed drawings, in which Figure 1 is an edge view of a book provided with the divided rings. Fig. 2 is a plan of the same, and Fig. 3 an end view of the same. One cover is omitted from Figs. 2 and 3. Fig. 4 is a section on line as a; in Fig.

2, and Fig. 5 is a section on line 5 5 in Fig. 2. Fig. 6 is a plan of the spring f. Fig. 7 is a side view of a foot-plate of V-trough shape with the journals of the divided rings upon its in 7 5 ner side. Fig. 8 shows the inner side of the trough with the mounting for the ring connections. Fig. 9 is a cross-section on line 9 9 i in Fig. 8. Fig. 9 is a section showing an alternative construction. Fig. 10 is a cross section where hatched across the middle of Fig. 8, with the book-covers folded at one side, as when using the leaves, and one of the covers m represented also in dotted lines at the left. Fig. 11 is an end view, and Fig. 12 a plan, of a fileboard provided with three rings; and Fig. 13 is a cross-section of the pivotwire (Z with a ring-section c notched to solder upon the same.

In Figs. 1 to 5 the foot-plate is formed as a spring-clip a, made of folded sheet metal, adapted to clasp on the end of the bookcover b and to be retained thereon with or without fastenings. c and c are the halves of the divided. rings, the halves 0 being connected by an integral pivot-wire (Z and the halves 0 being connected by an integral pivot-wire d. The wires are flatted upon one side, and a leaf-spring f is held over the two wires by rivets 9 near its opposite ends and is slit between the rivets. Feet 9 are bent dowmvardly upon each side of the spring at its ends to embrace the wires, which turn between such feet and rivet, as in a journal-bearing. The middle of the spring-leaf is free to bend, and when either of the ringseetions is opened the front portion of its Wire d or d presses that portion of the springleaf upwardly from the foot-plate a. The ring-sections when opened, as shown at the left side of Fig. 5, remain in such position, as the round portion of the'wire then touches the spring; but when the sections are turned to their closed position the spring bears upon the corner of the flatted portion and holds the ring normally closed. The wires 61 and d are grooved where the rivets g pass between them, the rivets thus preventing end motion of the Wires and holding the ring-sections in alinement.

Fig. 5 shows the separate lifting of one of the spring portions when one of the sections is opened separately. The construction thus permits either ring-section to be turned outwardly, the spring being lifted as the sec tion is turned and falling back to its normal position when the ring-sections are closed. A group of leaves A is shown between the covers in Fig. 1, the'cover I) being attached to the foot-plate a by a flexible flap b The cover 6 forms a tablet upon which the leaves are supported when the cover I) and its flap are thrown backwardly. The cover I) and a portion of the flap are omitted in Fig. 2 for want of room upon the drawings.

Figs. 4 to 10 show a construction in which the pivot-wires are j ournaled upon a troughshaped foot-plate in which the edges of the trough are drawn together, giving a crosssection of triangular shape. In such construction the foot-plate is notched to permit the opening of the ring-sections, and the pivot-wires d (1 may be journaled upon either the outer or innerside of the trough, but are shown upon the .inner side in the drawings.

The trough-shaped piece has a middle footplate a, upon which the wires (1 d are j ournaled, and sloping side pieces a, which are brought together at their edges and united to the flaps 0 and 0 of the covers.

The pivot-wires are flatted upon the sides which lie adjacent when the ring-sections are closed, and the foot-plate is formed with studs j, projected betweenthe flat sides of the wires near their opposite ends. The spring Zis made of trough sha e and secured to the foot-plate at the midd e of its length by rivet Z and is provided with central slots is in its opposite ends, which form four tongues Z of quandrantal cross-section, as shown in Fig. 9, each of which embraces the outer side of one of the pivot-wires and forms with the studs a bearing or journal for the wires When turned. The tongues Z press elastically at their outer ends upon the wires and operate as springs to press the flat sides of the wires against the studs j, and thus hold the rings normally closed.

One of the covers lettered m is shown attached to the foot-plate by a short flap 0 and the other cover m by a long flap 0 to operate like the cover I) in Fig. 1.

The covers are shown folded together in Fig. 10 and one of the ring-sections opened, which brings the round side of the Wire instead of the flat side against the stud y' and crowds the adjacentjspring-tongues Z outwardly at opposite ends of such wire, as shown in Fig. 9. The center ortion of the cover-plate is shaped to clear t e wires when the ring-sections are turned outwardly, so as not to interfere with their free rotation; The trough-shaped footlate is formed belowthe ring-sections with notches q of suflicient depth to permit the turning of the ring-seetions open, as shown in Fig. 10.

The constructions all operate the same to furnish the desired means for moving either half of the divided rings away from the other half, so as to retain the perforated leaves upon either half and remove the leaves from the other half at pleasure. The constructions also furnish convenient means of attaching such independently-movable ringsections to the back or cover of a book, so that the leaves may be inclosed when not in use.

All of the parts are formed of wire or sheet metal and are thus readily made, and as the ring-sections and their connected wire 61 or cl form only a single piece all the operative parts embrace merely the two wire pieces and the spring f or Z. The construction is thus very cheap and efiective.

Figs. 11 to 13 show means for operating three or more divided rings simultaneously for use Withlarger perforated leaves. The ring-sections c are turned open in Fig. 12, as well as the intermediate ring-sections 0 which are soldered or riveted to the pivot Wires cl intermediate to the end sections 0 or c. For soldering such intermediate sections to the wire the sections are made, as shown in Fig. 13, to fit one side of the wire and secured thereto by hard solder. In such con- 7 struction the springs for controlling the movement of the ring-sections are necessarily applied to the pivot-wire between any two adjacent rings, and where there are three or more rings more than one of the springs may be applied, as shown at f in Figs. 11 and 12.

Where additional ring sections are attached to the pivot-wire between the end sections, it is immaterial how many springs are applied to the wire or how the spring operates upon the wire, provided it holds the ring-sections both in their closed and open positions.

Although special stress has been laid upon the fact that either of the ring-sections may be turned to remove the papers therefrom, it is obvious that with the construction shown in the drawings both of the ring-sections'may be moved at once to form a larger opening for the insertion and removal of the papers.

Having thus set forth the nature of the invention, What is claimed herein is 1. The combination, with a suitable footplate, of two rings divided into halves and such halves formed integral with connectingwires, means to journal the wires upon the foot-plate, a flat upon each wire, and a spring operating with such flats to hold the rings normally closed, whereby either half of the rings may be moved away from the other half at pleasure.

2. The combination, with a suitable footplate, of two rings divided into halves and such halves formed integral with flattened wires and extended wholly at one side of the same, means to journal the wires upon the foot-plate, and a spring operating with the flattened portion of the wires to hold the rings normally closed, whereby either ringsection may be turned from its normal position to apply the papers thereto.

3. The combination, with a suitable footplate, of two rings divided into halves and such halves formed integral with flattened wires and extended wholly at one side of the same, means to journal the wires upon the foot-plate, a spring operating with the flattened portion of the wires to hold the rings normally closed, and the foot-plate having notches to permit one or both of the ring-sections to move in the notch or notches when turned from the opposite ring-section.

4. The combination, with a foot-plate having means for connecting it with a book cover, of two rings divided into halves and such halves formed integral with flattened wires, means to journal the wires upon the foot-plate, and a spring operating with the flattened portion of the wires to hold them normally closed upon one side of the footplate.

5. The combination, with a foot-plate of closed triangular trough shape having means for connecting its meeting edges with book covers, of two rings divided into halves and such halves formed integral with flattened wires, means to journal the wires upon the foot-plate, and a spring operating with the flattened portions of the wires to hold them normally closed upon the outer side of the trough.

6. The combination, with a foot-plate of trough shape having means held between its opposite edges for connecting it with bookcovers, of two rings divided into halves and such halves formed integral with flattened wires, means to journal the wires upon the foot-plate, notches in the foot-plate to permit the moving of the ring-sections apart, and a spring operating with the flattened portions of the wires to hold the rings normally closed.

7. The combination, with a foot-plate of closed triangular trough shape having means held between its opposite edges for connecting it with book-covers, of two rings divided into halves and such halves formed integral with flattened wires, means to journal the wires up on the inside of the foot-plate trough, notches q in the said foot-plate to permit the moving of the ring-sections apart, and a spring operating with the flattened portions of the wires to hold them normally closed upon the outer side of the foot-plate trough.

8. The combination, with a suitable footplate, of two rings divided into halves and such halves formed integral with two connecting-wires, and one or more additional pairs of cooperating ring-sections attached to said Wires intermediate to the ends, means to journal the wires upon the foot-plate, and a spring operating to hold the rings normally closed.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

LUCENA M. MORDEN.

lVitnesses:

L. LEE, THOMAS S. CRANE. 

